Sparking Student Motivation with Math and Art: A Perfect Pi Day Combination

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Happy Pi Day to all my Math Geek friends!

I'm linking up with one of my BBBs, Joanne, at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share a project that I completed with my Smarties for Pi Day.

In sixth grade we don't teach about circles anymore. In fact, probably the closest I get to circles is when we teach a little about percentages, but I still think it is important for students to learn about the concept of Pi. I started out with an overview video for them that explains what Pi is. Do you ever watch the Math Bites videos that Danica McKellar creates? They are amazing and fun for math concepts. Do you remember The Wonder Years? She was Winnie. Now she writes books that focus on girls and math. This is the one we watched about Pi:

Then we created an art project incorporating the digits of Pi into a Cityscape with watercolors.

I saw this project originally on Pinterest from What We Do Daily and read the post {HERE}. My students LOVED this project. I split my class into two groups to make the project more manageable. One group started by graphing the Pi digits on graph paper. Some of them chose to do a twilight scene, so they colored their digits black. I used two different sizes of graph paper, because I still have students with some fine motor skill issues. When they finished graphing the digits, they cut out the scene so it looked like skyscraper buildings.

The second group I started with water coloring the backgrounds.

When each group was finished, they moved to the area they hadn't completed. They glued the cityscape to their watercolor background when they finished, and then I trimmed the projects so I can display them in the hallway of our main building. My friends, it was a WONDERFUL way to spend our time on a half day. My Smarties worked together and helped each other cut, paste and glue. It gave them a chance to talk quietly in groups.. what sixth grader doesn't love that! Some were trying to memorize the digits of Pi as they graphed. Over all, it was a fabulous way to celebrate!

Check out a few of the final products:

I also wore my EPIC PI DAY Tshirt!

Do you celebrate Pi Day at your school? I would love to hear the kinds of activities that you do!

Also, have you entered my Giveaway yet? You can win a $20 gift card to Amazon, or $10 of Clipart or $10 from my TpT store. Stop by {HERE} to enter. The rafflecopter is open until Thursday.

And thank you Joanne for helping me share how I motivated my students this week!